The thing worth saving is the practice, not the industry around it
Yoga has become a large commercial category with claims attached that the practice never made for itself. Separating the two is the point of this publication.
Yoga in most Western countries is now a substantial commercial sector: studios, teacher trainings, clothing, retreats, apps, and an enormous quantity of promotional writing. Much of that is unremarkable commerce and some of it is good. What has come with it is a set of claims the practice itself never made, about curing conditions, aligning energies, correcting posture permanently, and resolving psychological difficulty, and those claims have attached themselves to something that did not require them.
The practice does not need them because what it reliably does is worth having on its own. Regular movement through a range of positions, held with attention, combined with deliberate breathing, produces effects most people notice within a few weeks: better mobility, better balance, a period of the day in which attention is somewhere specific, and for many people a reduction in the physical signs of stress. Those are modest, real, and consistent with what is generally understood about movement and attention.
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